Business Trends

Put down the leftover hotdogs, sparklers, and souvenir American flags. Yes, summer has barely started—but if you’re a small business owner whose profitability depends on the holiday shopping season, it’s time to start planning your marketing strategy now.

A corporate social responsibility (CSR) program could be what your company needs to work toward a community mission alongside your business mission. These programs are increasingly becoming a staple of business transparency efforts; many big companies like Patagonia, Warby Parker, and Ben & Jerry’s have corporate responsibility programs for causes that align with their business missions.

Most business owners have a general idea of the executive summary that comes with the traditional business plan. However, in the real world, summaries come up much more often than just in the business plan. How to create the summary, and how to use it, depends on the business objective.